A Christian camp leader who sexually abused young boys after lacing sweets with tranquillisers has been jailed for 23 years and 10 months.
Jon Ruben, 76, a retired vet and church youth volunteer, used the “cloak of Christianity” to carry out sexual assaults on vulnerable children, Leicester crown court heard.
As he was sentencing Ruben, Judge Spencer told him he would serve a further period on licence, bringing his total sentence to 31 years and eight months.
Ruben, from Ruddington in Nottinghamshire, previously pleaded guilty to sexual assault of a child under 13, assault of a child under 13 by penetration, eight counts of child cruelty, three counts of making indecent images of children and four drugs charges.
Leicester police said they were continuing to investigate Ruben’s involvement with children across more than 20 years.
The judge told him: “Ultimately, this case is about you achieving sexual gratification by carrying out your sexual fantasies focused upon young boys through careful, cynical, chilling preparation and by manipulation.”
Before abusing the boys Ruben laced sweets with tranquilising drugs in “a sweet game” at a summer camp, Stathern Lodge, that he ran in Stathern, Leicestershire.
The prosecutor Mary Prior KC told the court: “Over the course of the weekend of 26th to 28th July 2025, the defendant used his cloak of Christianity to poison boys in order to sexually abuse them.”
She added: “The purpose of the sedation was to ensure all of the boys were heavily asleep so the defendant could undress them and choose who to sexually abuse.”
Ruben also used sedatives in his wife’s tea so she did not notice his absence in the night, Prior told the court. He was arrested last July after eight children and one adult fell ill at the camp.
Ruben used the dark web to buy what he thought was temazepam to sedate his victims, the court heard. But one of the victims tested positive for liquid Xanax, the prosecution said. Ruben took Viagra to assist in his offending, the court heard.
Susan Ruben told the court she felt “completely betrayed” by her husband. She said: “He spent decades trying to paint a picture that he was a righteous, honourable man, when he was actually a sadistic, monstrous paedophile.”
Ruben was a member of the church council at St Peter’s in Ruddington where he worked as a volunteer with young people.
After Ruben’s guilty plea in November, Paul Williams, the bishop of Southwell and Nottingham, said he was “profoundly shocked”. He said in a statement: “The abuse of trust and harm to the vulnerable is horrific in any setting, but it is especially shocking when it happens in a context that should have been safe and nurturing.”
Janine McKinney, the chief crown prosecutor for the East Midlands, said: “Jon Ruben posed as a leader in his faith community and a dedicated Christian volunteer. The reality was that under the respectable veneer was a relentless predator, using the positions he had secured for himself to gain access to children.”
Temporary DCI Neil Holden, from Leicestershire police, said: “Our ongoing investigation continues to focus on Ruben’s background and making contact with the schools, agencies and organisations we know he has been involved in to provide help, advice and support, and to investigate any further information which we receive.”
A statement read outside court by the victims’ families said: “Jon Ruben portrayed himself as a good Christian man and someone who we could trust to be in charge of the care of our children. Our children themselves admired and respected Jon, but what we have found out is that Jon is a devious child sexual predator.
“There are no words to describe how much Jon’s actions anger us and horrify us. He took away our children’s right to be children, to be safe and protected.”
